Bergs: more than just bass cabs?

I asked Jim the same question. His response paraphrased was there would be no problem running cd's through them. Enjoy

 

Just a note, in talking with Jim, no noticable brake in time is required. In the first few seconds it is broke in.

 

Jim would know, but I have read here that others have noticed this, and I could swear mine sounds sweeter and sweeter. Maybe I'm breaking in.

 

+1... I think the only cabs that have a break-in time recommended are for the extremely high X mass (do I have that right... the really long throw woofers that Andy uses) speakers in the Acme cabs.

Just plug those babies in and start wumpin'!!!!

There are some who hear a cab 'open up' a little with time. I myself have never experienced that, but even if it's true, it has nothing to do with 'safety' or hurting your woofers, adn the speakers would be similarly broken in after 15 minutes of gig playing.

Regarding a 'programmed' music source... since the source is compressed, etc., that will have MUCH less impact on your speakers than a live bass guitar input.... no problem there at all.

 

Tom Bowlus has been known to make a whole PA out of Berg Speaker Cabinets. A very large one, at that.

 

Yep. Maybe he can re-post the picture!

 

I suspect that most of the break-in phenomenon is our ears getting used to the nuances of a particular piece of equipment. Most drivers don't require any particular break in period.

 

I think that may partially be true, but numerous cabs that I have 'broken in' over the years do sound markedly different after a month or so - too different to be just the ear thing. My current Berg setup does sound better now after its got a few gigs under its belt. Speakers do settle in after a while, and they do wear out. I reconed my old Trace rig after reading some articles about speaker suspensions getting old and sloppy with age, and they tightened right up - better, more controlled bass, and all the midrange that I was lacking was back after I did that.

I think the suspension loosens up a bit, the cabinets start to resonate and settle in a bit - it's partially your ear, but I believe there is physics involved.

We need a scientist to chime in here - Mr. Fitzmaurice, are you around? Are we crazy or on drugs or what?

Also, to answer the original question, you can play anything you want through the Bergs - they would make an excellent PA rig.

Thanks,
Cameron

 

What a great forum we have!

 

I think you're looking for xmax.

Several speaker companies talk about break in periods. The suspension is a bit stiffer straight out of manufacture than it is after a few hours of movement. Some people reccomend not measuring for Thiele-Small parameters until after a few hours of break in, because the suspension measurements (cms) can change a bit, and cause the models to be off.

Oh, and KJung, I think you may be on to something about the long throw woofers. It makes sense that they would be affected more, since they have more suspension to be affected than short throw woofers, all other things being equal.

P.

 

I have played cds through my Berg HT 210 or 115 cabs and the sound wasnt that great. Its not a fault of the cabs at all since requirements for bass and full range sonic reproduction are different. Its not what they were designed for.

I found that a substantial quantity of the music signal (most of it) came through the tweeter. Suddenly I realized why the tweet/wooofer crossover sounds "seamless" with the Bergs as so many around here say. The crossover point is probably low and so the tweeters are doing a lot of work.

 

I knew I was 'close but no cigar' on that one

 

I haven't had an extremely high X-mas since college. (where's that tokin' smiley?)

rimshot

 

Ditto on that

 

well i'm currently using a berg ex112 as a guitar cab for the moment

I sold my 212 guitar cab and was looking at just a mesa 112 cab for my mesa F-50 head, so i decided to plug it into one of my berg cabs, and oh man it sounds great.

I don't really know if i'll bother getting a proper guitar cab for the time being.

 

Actually, I will have to disagree with you somewhat. The electric bass guitar is darned near a full range instrument, and in fact, Jim does design his cabs (HT and IP line, at least) to be more or less full range (within some limits, but with said limits falling generally within the range of most recorded music), and to be as tonally balanced as possible across that range. My experience using the HT115 and HT210 for CD playback has been very positive, though I will say that you do need to tweak the tweeter settings somewhat. There is a lot going through the tweeter in a Berg cab, and you just don't notice it all with bass. I generally turn my tweets down to 1/4 or less with music, but leave them about 1/2 with bass.

Oh yeah, here are the photos:

Original Berg PA:



New and improved Berg PA (two HT210's added):

 

Well the experience I had was quite short. About 5 minutes without tweaking anything. I heard way too much through the tweeters so I didnt care for it and turned it off. True the cabs are designed for 38 - 18kHz but most of that frequency range is above the crossover point. Ideal for electric bass since most of a typical 4 strings fundamentals are lower frequencies. Its what I would have epected to hear.

I played cds a few times years back with Acmes and recall a slightly better experience. I wont question that it sounded good to you though!